ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complex dynamics of small-group interaction, ideological construction, and consciousness-raising in the mythopoetic men’s movement through a close empirical analysis of the role of the individual men’s group leader. A major theoretical foundation of this exploration is Antonio Gramsci’s work on ideology, social change, and the organic intellectual. Detailed ethnographic analysis shows that the leader is able to utilize his authority and interactional power to develop the ideological identity of the group and act as a socializing agent to its members. He can be understood as a Gramscian organic intellectual, disseminating and interpreting the ideas of the high intellectuals of the men’s movement in order to develop the metaphorical foot soldiers who are the grassroots heart of the movement. At times this microlevel power is used to manipulate and control participants in the name of the local leader’s ideological vision. The case study analysis that follows examines in empirical depth the complex interactional dynamics involving Watani, the “facilitator/ firetender” of the Open Plain Men’s Circle.
